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{LLINWIS LIBRARY 
AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 
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The Library Record. 





Mae. III—Noz 3: 


WORCESTER, MASS., NOVEMBER, 1890. 


50 Cents A YEAR 





“ 


NEW FREE 
DESCRIPTION OF THE BUILDING. 





l 
Prepared for the Library Record, 


BY STEPHEN C. EARLE, ARCHITECT. 





Fora number of years the Free Public 
Library Building has been in a very crowded 
condition and constantly becoming more so 
with the yearly additoin of new books, until 
every available space has been filled to over- 
flowing. The need of more room was long 
ago conceded and various schemes were pro. 
posed for supplying the want. Various sites 
were suggested for a new building with'a view 
to removing the whole library ; also sites for 
branch libraries; then the various adjoining 
properties were considered with a-view to 
adding to the original building. The plan of 
getting new accommodations in connection 
with the old, being finally decided to be the 
advisable one, the general desire was to 
occupy the lot to the south and thus get a 
frontage on Pearl street and a building ex- 
tending from street to street. It was however 
found that the lot adjoining the library on 
the east, could be bought on much more ad- 
vantageous terms, and the purchase was 
authorized by the City Council and the 
property conveyed by deed to the city from 
the owner, Dr. J. O. Marble, April 26, 1888. 

Steps were at once taken looking towards 
building, and Stephen C. Earle, architect, 
was employed under direction of Mr. Green 
the Librarian, and Mr. Peck, Superintendent 
of Public Buildings, to make preliminary 
sketches which were finally approved by the 
Board of Directors, in the fall of 1888, and 


POLLARD ENG. CO. 























the City Council was asked to make appro- 
priations for the work. It was not however, 
until July &th,. 1889, that an order was passed 
appropriating $40,000 for beginning the work 
on the basis of a total cost of $100,000. Pro- 
posals were then invited from builders, and 
a contract was made with Cutting & Bishop, 
the lowest bidders, dated August 7, 1889, for 
$84,306, the Committee reserving certain 
parts to be done by separate contract. 

The work was immediately started, and 
owing to the mildness of the winter, continu- 
ed without interruption, so that the roof was 
completed early in the Spring of 1890, and 
the inside work begun. It is now substan- 
tially finished, ready for furniture and fix- 
tures. 

The building is somewhat irregular in 
plan, its form being determined by the exi- 
gencies of light, both for this and the old 
building, and in the interest of light the con- 
nection between the old and the new, while 
it fills the entire space between them in the 
basement, above that consists only of a cor- 
ridor and connecting lavatories. The main 
floor of the new building is level with that of 
the old, and by reason of the grade of the 
street, the new basement is a story of 12 feet 
in which is the new main entrance. The 
consideration of the need of light and the 
nature of the street grade, seemed to require 
that the new building should be treated by 
itself, rather than as an addition to the old 
building and to allow a different architectural 
style and the use of different materials. In 
place of the pressed brick and fine cut stone, 
Pompeian brick with rock faced granite and 





Leatta. .The. style is Ronse: esque 








PUBLIC LIBRARY BUILDING, WORCESTER, MASS. 


brown stone are used, enriched with some 
carving and a special feature in red terra 
At the 
North East corner is a square massive tower 
with a pyramidal roof carried only a little 
above the main roof, the basement story of 
which makes the main entrance through a 
wide, semi-circular archway, into a broad 
and deep open porch with tiled floor. The 
entrance arch is flanked both sides by enrich- 
ed pilasters supporting a heavy cap and ter- 
minated with a large brown stone carved owl 
over each pilaster. Above the entrance a 
curved oriel window is carried up through 
two stories, giving a pleasant outlook up and 
down the street, from the tower rooms. At 
the North West corner is a private entrance 
to the basement and reached by a flight of 
outside steps. The door opens directly into 
a room 14 x 22 feet, designed for the janitor’s 
use for unpacking &c. The facade between 
the entrances is pierced with windows as 
large as the construction will allow, four to 
each story, and over each a semicircular arch” 
ed panel in red terra cotta, of Romanesque 
conventional ornament, encircling a medal- 
lion portrait of heroic size, in bold relief. 
These are intended to be representative char- 
acters of different ages, different nations and 
different departments of literature, of course 
very general in their way, as there are only four 
of them; thus, ancient Greece and History 
are represented by Thucydides; later Rome; 
Oratory and Philosophy, by Cicero; the 
Elizabethan age, England and Literature, by 
Shakespeare ; and our own time and country, 
natural and applied Science, by Franklin. 


UNIVERSITY OF 
ILLINGIS LIBRARY 


AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 


ir 


THE LIBRARY RECORD. 








PLAN OF BASEMENT. 


On entering the building by the main oaken 
door, we find ourselves in a spacious vesti- 
bule with floor of mosaic tiles and walls of 
red pressed brick. Directly opposite is the 
janitor’s room 8x15 1-2 feet, and to the right 
is the door to the Reading Room. This 
vestibule also has main stairs in handsome 
oak finish, leading to the several stories. 
The Reading room occupies the whole of the 
basement, except the part used for janitor’s 
rooms, stairways, corridors and lavatories, 
and is divided into three parts by the columns 
supporting the walls and floors above, the 
dimensions of the several sections being 
28x 29 and 29x41 at the front and 35x50 in 
the rear. In the middle of the West side is 
a corridor connecting with the old building 
on the several stories, and having stairways 
running up through all the stories. There is 
also a first class hydraulic passenger elevator 
connecting with each story, and on each story 
in connection with the corridor are convenient 
lavatories and closets. There is a fine cellar 
under the whole of the basement, which is 
as yet unappropriated except the part used 
for heating appian, us.and fuel. 


IN Init 


PLAN OF FIRST FLOOR. 





On the main floor next to the main en_ 
trance hall, is the Green Library Reading 
room, 29x 41, and separated from this only 
by an arcade of three openings, is the Libra- 
rian’s and assistants’ work room, 25x28. 
Both of these rooms are lighted from the 
front. Over the entrance is the Librarian’s 
private room, 13x18. The remainder of this 
story which is sixteen feet high, is devoted to 
the stack room of the Green Library, togeth- 
er with aroom directly over it which is exactly 
similar except that the height of the story is 
but fourteen feet. Each stack room will be 
filled with iron stacks for books and will have 
an intermediate perforated floor, and together 
are expected to accommodate the present 
library and its natural growth for twenty-five 
years. A small elevator connects the differ- 
ent floors of the stack rooms. This part of 
the building is of fire proof construction, and 
the remainder,while it has wooden floor joists, 
has wire lathing for ceilings, mineral wool 
between floors, and walls plastered on to the 
brick-work or on to terra-cotta furring. 





PLAN OF SECOND STORY. 


The second story has a Lecture hall 29 x 41 
directly over the Green Library Reading 
room; west of this is the Directors’ room, 
14 x25, and in the north-west corner, the cat- 
alogue room, 13 1-2x30. In the tower isa 
study room, 13x18 and another of the same 
size is over it in the third story. The remain- 





PLAN OF THIRD STORY. 


ing portion of the third story is intended for 
the storage and use of the collection of art 
works in the shape of books and plates, in 
which the library is very rich. There are 
three of these rooms all finely lighted from 
the top, the south one which is 35x50, also 
having windows on three sides. The rooms 
in the front are25 x28 and 29x4I. 

The building is heated by steam, in part by 
direct radiation, part indirect, and other parts 
still by direct-indirect, and for ventilation, in 
addition to open fireplaces in most of the 
rooms, there are also ample ducts for foul air 
exit, in which a current is secured by heat. 
The wood finish of the building of which 
there is but little, is of white pine finished 
without paint, and it is expected that plain 
light tints will be given to the walls and ceil- 
ings. The artificial lighting will be by both 
gas and the incandescent electric light. 


She Wanted One, Two. 

An awning maker who had received a 
postal card asking him to call at a house on 
Porter street, put in an appearance as soon 
as possible, and the woman of the house 
pointed to the window she wanted provided 
with a shade. 

“ But you get no sun on this window,” pro- 
tested the man. 

“ Well, suppose I don’t.” 

‘“‘ But an awning is to keep the sun out.” 

“Is it? Perhaps you are not too old to 
learn something.” 

‘But, ma’m, do you really want an awning 
here?” 

“Of course I do. Do you see that awning 
on the next house ?” 

“Yes; but the sun strikes that window.” 

“Can’t help that. That woman thinks she 


owns the earth. She put that awning uy to 
spite me. I am going to put one up to show 
her that she can’t run this town. Go ahead 
and have it done as soon as possible; and I 
want it a fiery red with white stripes in it.” 





Don’t Refuse. ; 

-There will come a time when childhood 
will be only a memory to the children of today. 
Are we who govern their outgoings and in- 
comings making those memories as pleasant 
as possible? Do we always say “ yes” when 
the little inconveniences that an affirmative 
answer will cause are more than a thousand 
times overbalanced by the happiness given 
the little ones? I am no advocate of care- 
lessness. I do not believe in turning children 
into the street and letting them run anywhere, 
with any kind of companions, so that they 
but keep out of our way; but my early expe~ 
rience was so depressing that I can never 


wish to deprive a child of any legitimate 
pleasure. I like to see the little ones haveall 


the harmless joys of childhood, the freedom 
of the blessed air and sunshine, and all the 
moderately safe plays and little excursions 
possible. They can be young but once, 
Brush the ugly wrinkles from your brow, 
tired mother, when the pattering little feet 
come in and the merry children ask some 
special favor; brush all the cobwebs away, 


and if possible please do not say “ no.” 
—Kit Clover. 


People talk of “ getting over” a great sor. 
row—passing it by, thrusting it into oblivion. 
No one ever does that; at least, no nature 
which can be touched by the feeling of grief. 
The only way is to pass through the ocean of 
affliction solemnly, with humility and faith, 
as the Israelites passed through the sea, — 
Then its very waves of misery will divide 
and become to usa wall on the right side 
and on the left, until the gulf narrows and 
narrows before us and we land,safe on. the 
opposite shore. 


Little Nan of four summers, considering it 
her duty to entertain a lady who is waiting 
for mamma, enters into conversation. 

Nan—Have you got any little girls? 

The Caller—Yes, I have two. 

Nan—D-do you ever have to whip ’em? 

Caller—I’m afraid I have to, sometimes. 

Nan—What do you whip;’em with? 

Caller (amused)—Oh, when they’ve been 
very naughty I take my slipper. 

Nan (most feelingly, as mamma enters)— 
Y-yo-you ought to use a hair brush; my 
mamma does, and it hurts awfully.—Zzf. 





REGINALD, my dear, can you not take the 
girls out where they can gather some autumn 
leaves to-morrow ?” ; 

“Yes, I guess so. But what is the matter 
with the leaves about the place? There is as 
good a variety of leaves within a hundred 
feet of the house as there is within ten miles.” 

“Oh, the girls don’t care anything about 
the leaves, Reginald. They want to eat sand- 


wiches and jelly cake in the woods.—Hart¢. 
Jord Post. 


The Public Library of Keene, N. H., gets — 
$30,000 from Mr. John Symonds’ legacy, 
which becomes available by the recent death 
of his widow. 


THE church fair lottery must go, too. The 
law authorities of the United States say so. 
The deacons will please make a note of it 
and behave accordingly.—Hera/d. 


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